![]() He had a most engaging spirit, and countless people have retained indelible recollections of his wisdom and good humor. He taught iconography formally and informally, at schools and museums across Ontario. Theodore was also a born teacher, and generous to all, especially his students and young collaborators, notably including the late Valentin Streltsov and Ksenia Sapunkova. Theodore’s life and work can be understood and appreciated – and his vision seen and voice heard – at his website: Fr. He painted with his whole soul, totally devoted to being an instrument of God and to bringing people closer to Him, and believed that he was growing in his craft to the end of his life. John the Baptist – that elicited admiration and even sponsorship from luminaries that included Alexander Solzhenitsyn and the Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Mstislav Rostropovich. In Washington, D.C., he received the commission to do the iconography in the new Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia – St. He was in this an original Christian ecumenist. One of his special gifts was a brotherly spirit that united believing people across denominations and jurisdictions. He left major work in these two home churches, as well as other Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches across Ontario and increasingly throughout the United States as well. Theodore was actively engaged as a iconographer, and his commissions increasingly grew to span the continent. Koulouras, and his family, that continued to the end of each of their lives, and enriched the lives of many others. Theodore began a friendship and collaboration with the pastor there, Fr. After a short time, he was called to service in Toronto, first at the Saint George Antiochian Orthodox Parish, and then at All Saints Greek Orthodox Church, both in the northern suburbs of Greater Toronto. Theodore was ordained a priest at the Albanian Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, in Natick, Massachusetts, on February 16, 1975, where he first served as a clergyman. He was painting major church commissions to the end of his life. His special talent and innate understanding of the power of visual art to inspire and inform was recognized early, and he was known for developing a personal aesthetic that combined elements of Slavic and Greco-Byzantine styles, that moved observers and energized communicants. Answering his call to the priesthood, he proceeded to the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Monastery and Theological School in Jordanville, New York, where, in addition to his priestly training, he studied Orthodox Iconography under two eminent masters, Archimandrite Cyprian, and Archbishop-to-be Alipy. ![]() Theodore graduated from the famed Boston English High School in 1959, and then earned twin BA degrees in Anthropology and Fine Arts, respectively, at SUNY Buffalo, and a masters in Fine Arts at the University of South Florida in Tampa. ![]() Growing up in the Antiochian Orthodox Church of Saint Mary in Cambridge, Fr. The siblings were the children of Theodore and Alia Koufos, both natives of Boston, where Father Theodore and his brother were born on December 15, 1940. Theodore leaves behind his identical twin brother, the Very Reverend Archimandrite Father Philip Koufos of Chicago, his devoted sister Cheryl Ann Rudolph, and his brother-in-law Peter Rudolph, of Youngstown, Ohio. A Renaissance man of penetrating insight and rare artistic and musical gifts, he left behind a legacy of deep devotion to God and dedication to His Church, having glorified God with his artistry in many dozens of Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches across North America with his magnificent body of work, and touching untold lives with his love, kindness, and spiritual leadership. Theodore was an Orthodox priest serving in Greek, Antiochian, Russian, and Albanian parishes in Canada and the United States for 46 years, and was an internationally celebrated Orthodox Iconographer of the very first rank. Father Theodore Koufos Reverend Father Economos Theodore Koufos Father Theodore Koufos, 80, fell asleep in the Lord on March 2, 2021, in North York, Ontario, Canada.
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